Between the 24th-27th of July Bilbao Exhibition Centre in Barakaldo will host another edition of the Spain's biggest LAN party GameGune with more than 4000 attendees. This year's LAN will feature two professional competitions for the games Quake III: Arena (CPMA vq3) and Counterstrike 1.6, which the total combined prizepot exceeding €25,000.

Everyone is invited to contribute to this News and help to keep it updated. Just post your information/links/whatever in the comments and it will be edited in.

First round will be group play which will proceed in a two-map format (meaning that there can be a 1-1 map draw). The top two of each group progress. Second round will be an 8-player best-of-three double elimination bracket.

Many players have decided not to come and I've worked really hard to get more, but that's all we have. Luckily krysa decided to come and is kinda relief having such a good player more here when you've lost so many.

I'm a bit exhausted with all this, not gonna tell you in how this is affecting my daily life but it is, pretty much.

Some people as Chris, zashael, Carmac, the staff for d3porte (a spanish e-sports web) and ESR and some spanish players as Slip have been helping me a LOT, without them I couldn't have continued with this cos it's getting harder everyday.

I still hope everything gets to end up well, we have a great tournament, with great gtvs and you all enjoy it.

I'll publish the new groups with similar time schedules by tomorrow night.

Cooller for the win! I hope noctis does a great tourney too.. he deserves it.
Congratulations Yezabel for the effort, sacrifice and time your wasting trying to make the best you can. That can only be good for quake.. ah .. get some oldschool players to the tourney.. like lakerman or blue! :|

czm will play better then he did at ESWC. I don't think cooller is ready to win the whole thing just yet. And the only person who can beat fox right now is Cypher. I wouldn't be surprised to see av3k taking 2nd place though. av3k/czm/cooller could be interchangeable...I don't see anyone else challenging for that 2nd or first spot. I could see vo0 stepping up here and maybe getting 5th place. Could also see dkt and nike not preforming at all close to what they could, and ending up on the bottom.

You should get a quakelive invite and go to town. Its way way more fun than cpma shit now.
Great movement, perfect weapon balance, makes vq3 actually fun again and a chess match again. (random spawns on dm6 etc)

QL will rule FPS 1v1 gaming when its finished... just it has a lot of bugs still :(

Game mode will be 1vs1, 15 minutes per map to the best of 3 maps. Every player will choose a map and the third one will be decided by organisers out of a draw if participants cannot reach an agreement. A Group and Double-Bracket system will be followed. In the final, the best winner and the best looser will fight, resulting absolut winner of the competition:

- The Winners winner after playing one set to the best of three.
or
- The Loosers winner after playing two sets to the best of three.

These are the maps chosen:
ztn3tourney1
pro-q3dm6
hub3aeroq3
pro-nodm9
pro-q3tourney4

Wasn't Toxic supposed to be at this event? Damn shame if he doesn't go. He and CZM were always two of my favorite players. Watch the ZM rip shit to shreds.

Cooller should stick with law-school. Pro-gaming, like every business, will need lawyers.

I must say, there are not nearly enough Celtic Irish. You assholes, whom I am descended from, should show up to kick some English ass. Then again, the English are too scared to compete against Celts or really anyone, these days.

I should also include, there are not enough players from China and India. Truth of the matter, Native Americans are of Asian descent. The specific ethnicity went through Siberia to Alaska; some stayed in Alaska becoming Eskimos, others went further south and became 'Indians', like my ancestors the Cherokee.

It is a lot of fun being American. The melting-pot imagery is no joke.

I think cooller will win not because he is smart in quake cause he is fucking smart in real life. He played in eswc and won REAL prize money for 2nd spot instead of going to wsvg(which closed down after that stop). He is playing in this tourney where he will win atleast 1000 euros (top 3 for sure). I still dont understand why many pro players are not playing this one, this has more reasonable prize breakdown than any tourney I have seen in recent times, maybe some are just dumb when it comes to make real life profitable decision. Coolller is the real pro, literally :)

Akiles ain't comming for serious reasons. He's one of the few players I haven't get angry when he told me he couldn't come. He'd come if he could, I know that for sure. I hope he can make sometime to pay us a visit though :S

I'm looking forward to see how GUArd and Krysa will perform, cause I've been telling they were quite strong on duel cups lately.
I'm curious to see how this 'new school' players will perform, as we've seen noctis was really solid at masters.
I'm also expecting Spartie to do quite well, I'm pretty sure he kinda sucked at ESWC-se, didn't give his best.

CZM playing like a madman. I think he was embarrassed to lose to cypher so badly.... I'm sure hes sad cypher isn't attending. Everyone else is getting in the minus range if its hub and less than 5 frags versus him on any other map.

You shouldn't underestimate CZM.. he has always been a favourite to all major tourneys and will continue to be despite is not so good performance in ESWC masters.
And for cooller's rail.. have you ever seen cooller playing a minor LAN game or something? He has a pretty amazing rail.. but if you ever noticed is gamestyle ain't based in railgun like the game of other players like toxic or zero4 .. so it's pretty obvious why he isn't known by his fantastic rail.

Hope to see some surprises .. maybe a spanish player surprising.. and by the way.. why there aren't french players going .. like l1nkin or the other guy who qualified for ESWC?

no cause " we have better thinks to do " but we are lot a good dueller in france but i ask yazabel to ask Kirua if he can come or strenx, but strenx sponsor dont have enough money to pay his trip :x and for kirua i dunno

Yezabel, there are contradicting statements regarding the map process, you said here that it will be like ESWC Masters, but if the groups are played in a 2 map format, where matches can end 1-1, that wouldn't be true.
In the bracket matches, do player remove one map each like at ESWC, or do they pick their homemaps? What is the final verdict here?

Regarding k1llsen not coming:
If you play as much and hardcore as he does, I don't really see why you wouldn't be able to pay the travel to get from Germany to Bilbao for a big tournament with certain prizemoney: it seems to be a really big hobby of his after all.
Also, there seem to be clans in Germany and Europe that do support players, like mouz or 4k. Why did 4k pick a player that is seemingly worse than k1llsen in noctis? Maybe k1llsen isn't that good at presenting himself as an attractive partner for certain teams.

Actually, I don't think you can say bo2 for a match consisting of 2 maps played no matter what. As far as I understand the expression 'best of 2', it implies that there's a winner 'the best of 2 maps' at the end of the match, which isn't the case since there can be a tie.
Yeah, that's interesting.

Better then noctis? That's not a very smart statement since noctis did really well in ESWC masters and almost beated fojji who's in great shape and is a very experienced player.
But maybe your k1llsen's friend and the very biggest fan so i understand.
The truth is that online games don't count for anything and even tho k1lsen is a decent player he hasn't proved nothing.
So .. where's the point?

1 or 2 could go to either. I think CZM will be a bit more prepared this time, and I wouldn't be shocked at all if Vo0 makes it out of his group, but I do doubt it. In time, he would, but not this soon.

Avek went very far at ESWC with some pretty average aiming as well. Compared to say Fox, Jibo, Rapha or Zero4, he just wasn't locking down like those players were, but went quite far. This is good :)

Avek (although I find his apathy most annoying) was the closest person besides CZM to beat Cypher (on any map). Avek on DM6 and CZM on T4. Correct me if I'm wrong here. Fox was close to matching CZM on T4 vs Cypher.

Now comes the disclaimer:

One can't make the rookie mistake of logic (which I just did somewhat) with the observation that if Player A beat Player C, and Player B lost to Player C, it follows that A will beat B; not true. Just like MMA, "styles" can muddle the waters a bit, but far less so in Quake 3 I would imagine.

Wtf is this shit schedule? Group A,B,C games today and group D only tomorow? I took a day of from work just not to miss any cooller game an he wont even play today. :((( Gamegune you owe me one free day.

I think most of this group can beat each other. Especially with dm6 in the map pool - spawn is all times lucky. Also, depending on the draw, some players will likely match up better against different opponents.

Why should czm drop his STRONGEST map against avek, whose weakest map is obviously hub? Should I remind you that avek lost quite badly vs Z4 at Masters two weeks ago, and Z4 isn't really considered to top-notch player on hub.

I think czm figured out hub before anyone else. Now everyone is catching on to how to play hub appropriately and seeing how Av3k has a very fast and aggressive style, it works out perfectly for Av3k to be a great hub player.

True that, and I might add a silly prediction : I wouldn't be surprised if av3k finds himself losing hub to someone else, if it really is (or was month ago) his worst map, he certainly learned it at the right time.

czm lost on hub? apart from czm not playing as much as he used to, i believe av3k is peaking just like czm once did. it's just unfortunate that they didn't peak at the same time. I think czm would have beat him in his day though, just from style and intelligence.

Vo0 made such an impressive progress in just 20 days that you wouldn't believe it. He deserved more from his matches against jibo, and he simply owned Nike. He already suffered an adrenaline rush, and started to scream, while Nike was freaking out with a smile in his face. Nike is a very nice guy.

GG vo0, if you continue improving at this pace, in some months you are going to be really on the top (with the permission of the "wonderboys" av3k and Cypher)

Very entertaining tournament to watch, and very nice sportsmanship showed by the players.

I think quake history tells the story here: cooller isn't in great shape, he even has to fight against players like doce.
He probably won't have a chance against good players that train professionally like fox in this form.
I guess he played a few hours before the tournament, and that doesn't work when others play hours and hours for months.

I think Cooller will obviously shine when the tournament progresses, he may be "fooling around" and/or struggling at this point, but he certainly still has got the mental advantage over some top players who still feel the soaring spot of their last encounter with Cooller...

He may be "past his prime" but cooller isn't active at all, czm is "past his prime" too but he hasn't been active for years. A week or a few of solid play is enough to start getting into shape but if you've not been active it takes a lot more (It's a shame czm won't be at ESWC Finals).

People constantly said what you said about Fatal1ty then he pops up at the WSVG and takes second place and a BO3 off of Toxic (Who had pretty much dominated the previous few months).

I think it's quite likely that cooller sees this as a warmup event for the ESWC Finals, see where he is in comparison and what he needs to do to be ready for the finals.

Jibo said that he would maybe bootcamp with Cooller, not that they have bootcamped or surely would.
Apparently that hasn't happened. Why do you think Jibo is in clearly better shape than Cooller? Because he simply is the better player, or because he has practiced normally, while Cooller hasn't?
It's quite obvious.

Fox has never been able to beat Cooller on lan, so when they meet in the winners bracket now, it will be sad if Cooller is chanceless, just like in the match against Spartie, because he isn't in form.

If Fox beats Cooller, I'd like it to be a practiced Cooller, not one who is completely out of form and has no chance even against Spartie

That's just sports mate... Some sportsmen do get into competition without being "in form" and do get to lose bigtime at one point. Cooller has got it in his own hands, it was up to him to practise or not, don't dare critisizing fox when he would win over Cooller, it's all Cooller own fault and that doesnt make fox a lesser player!

I think his point was he'd rather see an in form fox beat an in form cooller. You might see that at the end of the post, unlike the bit where he criticises fox (Which isn't in there).

I always think it's sad when an in form player destroys someone who is clearly not in form, several matches at Quakecon 2004 were like this (Cooller vs zero4/czm on hub3aeroq3 in a BO1, zero4 vs czm for example).

His point was indeed that it would be kind of sad to see but that's just from Coollers point of view? Say fox is beating Cooller later on and everyone sees he's clearly out of form, wouldnt it be nice to see Cooller taking revange next time? That's what I meant by stating "this is just sports". And there is clearly no reason for fox to ever be the lesser player in comparison to Cooller.

Regarding your statement about Fox not having to be a lesser player than Cooller: he always has been, in q3 and q4 duel, so obviously there is every reason for him to still be a lesser player, except that he is a gaming professional, while Cooller seems to do other things nowadays.

nah fuck that. Don't go then. Then whine about being "in form" or not afterwards. You faggots make too many excuses for players. If your nerves can't handle or if you can't get "in form" before a tournament then what happens, happens. No if''s and's or but's about it. You showed up and got spanked.

Either come prepared, like a good sports player does, or don't whine or make excuses for players who don't.

I'm not making any excuses, it's just boring watching someone who isn't in form/prepared lose to someone who is and I'd rather not see it at all (Them not turn up/not enter/not play) and have them play a game when both are.

Spartie beat cooller fair and square (Not that I watched the demos, maybe he cheated!) and if anyone else does it's the same situation.

It's just sad seeing players you know can play far better losing games, any games.

geo again showing how he cant perform in a lan environment, he dominates some of those players online 40-0 (such as draven on hub) - even causes him to callvote restart, and then it comes to the same players on lan and its close or he loses, i don't understand it :s

The game needs a complete re-balance. But once you fuck with it (yes for some reason balancing a game is a crime because it was perfectly balanced to begin with, right?) people will just bust their nuts over the whole thing.

No i agree, shaft is way too overpowered, and so is the MG and railgun if you ask me. MG and shaft should have a 1 damage point reduction, and rail..well, i still think they should decrease the RoF to 2000ms.

anyway (fix this shit please)
very nice games! total unpredictable
so ist it luck or what? hard to say

respect to czm
i mean its like ronny osullivan didnt paly for 2 years and awaiting to rule all active guys . no its still sport and its good that active guys are rewarded for this

cooller had some bad luck vs fox could defintely baet him on ztn
but fox had just the better game

avek is really impressive how the fuck is he doing this ?
i mean hes not really an aim monster and doesnt look like timing monster aswell but still somehow the whole package is enough
damn really talanted this boy i guess its gonna be pretty hard for jibo tomorrow

noctis profed himself on lan again

VoO dont know how hes doing this aswell
2 months q3 this guy is playing?
maybe toxic is reall right
every guy who has some aim and timing can become very fast good at noobq3

jibo solid (iknew he would beat cooller)

of course the games sucked sometimes cause its so fucking aimheavy and control doesnt mean a thing
everyby tries to outaim and not to outsmart eachother

remember sadly the Unkind times when he had control and armor advandage the enemies where running as shit -
today noctis would take the lg and ATTACK !? and maybe he would even take him down :(

So since map control and movement has 0 to do with winning at this lvl you can just skip the powerups all together and chase down the fully stacked guy at 200/200 with your shaft?

The "all aim" argument is completely retarded since you need all the skills connected to the game to win in the end. Even if they would change some weapon balance (which they should imo) people like you would still be whining that their favorite player can't win because his aim is crappier then the other player with equal map control.

yes well because aim is pretty much what skill is about, ofcourse there are predicting abillities, positioning and rest "brain" stuff that take's a major role in vQ3 despite what some of you are saying.

I just think that in those levels everyone knows the maps so well and its very hard for 1 to actually outsmart an opponent in the same level, so in the bottom line what's deciding is mainly aim, correct weapon usage and ofcourse map control ( which is related more to brain then aim imo ). I woulden't want it the other way because i think Q3 is balanced as it is and the last thing i want is the game to become all brain and tactic because we all know how those kind of games turns to be, i.e UT2K4 which is only +back, no aim needed = super boring to watch and super boring to play.

altough i do agree that shaft could be nerfed a little i think people who are saying that vQ3 is all aim are exaggerating, arrw is the perfect example for that, no offence.

I have to agree at least to the arrw point. Also some guys ask how avek does it. Simple, he is not aim whoring and use + forward all the time. The others that do that, have paid it many times. So, it is not aim only. If it was, the final placings would had been much different. It is more than it used to be, though.

So far I'm kinda amazed at Nike not even making it out of his group. Voo, Spartie and avek all performed better than expected, not to mention noctis who even stole the first place in the group from fox.

The real question is if the czm/cooller era(s) has come to an end though... I'm kind of expecting one of them to still win the big finals later.

why the hate? when it seems true
avek has not really much expierince in q3
Vo0 has 1.5 months
still they own people with years of years active playing

btw you saying your fucking nonsense opinion vs toxic
is like a fat guy critisizing michael jordan by his opinion of basketball
yeah you and all those esr nerds have more clue than a guy who played both games q3 and q4 on an worldclass level for thousands of hours
he knows nothing you know it all

I agree, GTV should really get an update that allowed admins to easier ban spammers and allow regular users to mute them too. I also find it irritating when there is a conversation going in, but suddenly you have 20 poles or others writting in their own language and ruining the please with gtv. I always end using gtv_nospeech because there is no channel feature a la irc.
Then there is the problem with seeing which games that are currently on, and you have to rely on using \gtv_nextgame all the time which is also extremely frustrating. I also wasted many hours just waiting for the games to start since they were so delayed, but most of the time we were never told by how much a game would be so. I really think the should incorporate some admin information window, that allowed admins to write directly from windows, and then they could easily keep people updated. GTV seriously needs an overhaul